The role of Fathers in changing society: Rebroadcast Episode 65

The greatest social change factor in the world right now could be fathers and their role in family and society. What makes the role of fathers and effective fathering so critical for a country like South Africa? And what do we mean by effective fathering? We speak with Kevin Rutter, an advocate for Fathers and founder of the NGO ‘Fathers for Africa’, and Hazel Kurian, a counselling Psychologist, about all things to do with the Fathers and Father Figures in our lives.

For more info on the “Boyz will be Men” programme Kevin is running watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf6ft6c5LIg

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About Hazel Kurian

Hazel Kurian started a private practice after completing her Master’s degree in Psychology in 2008. She works primarily with adults, doing individual and couple’s psychotherapy, as well as with adolescents. She also offers training and workshops for organisations or smaller interest groups. She also occasionally guest lectures and worked for a number of years at an Employee Wellbeing Provider.

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About Kevin Rutter

Kevin is married to Colleen and is a father to two teenage girls, Tarryn (18) and Michelle (15). He believes that the future of South Africa lies in the character of her children, and that fatherlessness is the most significant social problem we face. The only credible strategy for reversing the current trend of declining child well-being is to begin the process of re-connecting millions of South African children to their fathers. He is the founder of Fathers in Africa, an NGO dedicated to running multi-faceted programmes to address this problem, and to strengthen and support Fatherhood. He is an enviro-addict and is a qualified Field guide and Scuba instructor

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About Chris Dykes (Co-host)

Christopher Dykes is the founder and director of Infinity Learning, a business specialising in Enterprise Development, Socio-Economic Development and B-BBEE consulting. The business aims to assist children from underprivileged areas with learning skills and runs a series of entrepreneurial development programmes that focus on practical skills and results. Where necessary, Chris assists businesses with their B-BBEE strategies in order to ensure that not only are maximum points being earned, but that sustainability is emphasised. Chris is also part of an international team that consults to an oil drilling company in the field of safety.

In his personal capacity, Chris has set up a small section 21 company that administers 27 educational bursaries, and has established a reading and literacy project called the ‘Bookshelf Project’. The vision of The Bookshelf Project is to facilitate a love of reading, to make a resource available to children that would otherwise have a very limited access to books. The project collects books from schools and individuals, builds bookshelves and installs finished bookshelves within community centres. To date approximately R175, 000 books have been collected and distributed.

Chris holds an MBA from the Wits Business School and he is passionate about reducing the number of plastic shopping bags that are consumed on a daily basis.